A mobile telephone terminal conventionally comprises a means for transmitting or receiving radio frequency signals in packets known as bursts.
The terminal also comprises various devices, for example an input/output management device, a power supply, a DC-DC regulator, a baseband signal processor, a means of managing the user interface, or other devices which could interfere with the transmission/reception of radio frequency signals.
During operation, these devices can degrade the quality of the radio frequency signals emitted by the radio transmitter/receiver or the data received from them.
One possible approach to avoiding such degradation in quality consists of protecting the radio transmitter/receiver from these interfering devices, by shielding or by having the interfering devices sufficiently distanced from the radio transmitter/receiver.
Another possible approach, known as TDI (Time Domain Isolation), consists of not making use of the radio transmitter/receiver at the same time as the interfering devices, which can then be placed in proximity to each other. This approach enables a higher level of integration. In this approach, the clock of the baseband signal processor is slowed or disabled prior to sending or receiving bursts of radio frequency signals, and the clock is reinstated once the bursts are sent or received.
However, this approach results in reducing the activity of the interfering devices, adversely impacting the features and services provided by such devices. The reduction in activity can be more or less considerable depending on the standard. For example, with the GPRS standard (General Burst Radio Services), the baseband signal processor would be stopped for about 70% of the time.